1Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later.
2Divide your gifts among many, for you do not know what risks might lie ahead.
3When the clouds are heavy, the rains come down. When a tree falls, whether south or north, there it lies.
4If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done.
5God’s ways are as hard to discern as the pathways of the wind, and as mysterious as a tiny baby being formed in a mother’s womb.
6Be sure to stay busy and plant a variety of crops, for you never know which will grow––perhaps they all will.
7Light is sweet; it’s wonderful to see the sun!
8When people live to be very old, let them rejoice in every day of life. But let them also remember that the dark days will be many. Everything still to come is meaningless.
9Young man, it’s wonderful to be young! Enjoy every minute of it. Do everything you want to do; take it all in. But remember that you must give an account to God for everything you do.
10So banish grief and pain, but remember that youth, with a whole life before it, still faces the threat of meaninglessness.
<< Ecclesiastes 11 >>
